Album Review

Long Cold Winter is a transition album for Cinderella, mixing pop-metal tunes with better hooks than those on Night Songs with a newfound penchant for gritty blues-rock à la the Stones or Aerosmith. The ballads — the grandiose "Don't Know What You Got (Till It's Gone)" and the excellent, lower-key "Coming Home" — are what made the album Cinderella's most commercially successful, but the effective combination of pop hooks and tough, swaggering rock & roll on songs like "Gypsy Road" and "Fallin' Apart at the Seams" prevents the album from becoming simply a vehicle for hit singles and keeps it interesting. Not all of the songs are memorable, but most of them are.

Biography

Formed: 1983 in Philadelphia, PA

Genre: Rock

Years Active: '80s, '90s, '00s

Hard rock band Cinderella gained success in the mid-'80s, turning out a series of million-selling albums and hit singles while placing music videos in heavy rotation on MTV. By the mid-'90s, the group's mass popularity had subsided due to professional setbacks and perceived changes in taste. But they continued to tour regularly well into the 21st century. Cinderella was founded in Philadelphia, PA, in 1983 by singer/songwriter/guitarist/keyboardist Tom Keifer (born January 26, 1961) and bassist...